Family Approval
by Chyme for the Rhyme
Summary: The other Ignis have...differing opinions on Ai's relationship with his origin. Not that their approval has ever stopped Ai before, of course!


**Notes:** This will definitely be an 'AU' if the Ignis aren't revived at the end of the series. Hence the tentative tags. Only a week to go until doomsday blows this out of the water and possible fix-it fics have to be written...sooooo...might as well publish this now.

* * *

Ai loves the other Ignis. He doesn't always like them – even knowing the truth about Lighting's cold, clinical above-it-all act, hasn't made him any easier to sit down and have an actual conversation with unfortunately, and Earth sometimes _still_ glares at him when he wanders into Aqua's territory. Stupid of him, especially when he has no reason to fret on_ that_ front, the silly lovesick fool. Aqua though, will still sigh at him and_ can_ be violent when he pushes her hard enough, but on the whole she cares in a way he's always felt to ring true, so he lets it slide. Mostly.

But Windy – oh, **don't** get him started on Windy. And Flame, Mr I'm-above-it-all has always been the most stand-offish-

'What's your relationship with your partner like?'

Ai gives a start. And almost as though these exact thoughts have summoned him here, Flame now flickers into view, a small chuck of volcanic rock perched under his feet to keep him poised above the patch of sunny grass Ai is currently bathed in. Though of course, Ai notes sourly, the other Ignis' arms are as firmly crossed as ever.

So he narrows his eyes. 'What part of it?' he shoots back, a note of irritation in his voice - after all when Flame drifts over to him it's almost always to judge him. In some ways he's worse than Aqua. 'Being marvellous support for him, you mean? Extra-ultra talented at making him smile? I know the sight is a rare one, but it still hap-'

'No,' Flame breaks in firmly. Then he hesitates. 'You and your partner, Playmaker-'

Ai makes a rude sound to interrupt him, like a wet raspberry being blown by a child, and Flame draws back, affronted. 'Urgh, ' Ai states derisively. 'No one _human_ can hack us here. It's okay to call him Yusaku.'

Flame gives him a strange look. 'Fine,' he says after a moment, though Ai notes his crossed arms have tightened, dug into themselves a little more. 'Look. We've all seen you, ahem, showing affection towards each other, you know, the sort of affection humans do when they have romantic feelings towards each other, and I was…'

At this point Ai's attention is firmly fixed on Flame, his yellow eyes changing from their narrowed slants of frustration and becoming upturned crescents of smug happiness. 'Awww, is Flame-chan a closet pervert?' he coos, black fingers curling under his chin the way he's seen embarassed maidens do on those historic dramas that Yusaku for some reason says aren't 'historical' at all. To further the effect he raises his other hand and gently swats at Flame with it in a giddy manner. 'Have you been spying on our hot and heavy make-out sessions?'

Flame bristles at this, just as Ai knew he would, drawing himself up so his shadow spills out to fall over Ai's leering face, and for a moment, the flame-like motif etched onto his head seems to flicker like actual fire, as he leans in closely.

'No!' he thunders. 'I can hardly help it if you keep shoving your partner into those weird 'purikura' photo booths, and childishly rip the files from the machine's memory to upload it into certain portions of the code around here.' Flame's arm spreads out, and with a disgusted noise, a stray rock is rolled free from the grass. It hovers up and over, displaying a cutesy photo of Ai, decked out in his humanoid SOLtiS from, his arms snugly stretched round a rather disgruntal looking Yusaku, both of them scattered with digitally stamped hearts and stars and kittens. And as though to complete the effect, the catchphrase of 'Number One Human' perches itself over Yusaku's frowning and not a little bewildered head.

Ai can't roll his eyes properly in his original Ignis form, not like this, but he can still cause an individual black dash like a ¬ to shoot across each yellow circle to show exactly how unimpressed he is. 'This is my area,' he points out. 'I can do as I please here. Besides; it's not like those pictures are particularly risqué. It's your fault for poking around where you don't belong.'

Flame gives him a look that comes close to despair; or it would if his eyes ever escaped those permanently narrowed slant they're caught inside. 'Ai. We're not stupid. We all know that you and Yusaku's relationship isn't like our ones with our own origins.'

Ai is half-tempted to shrug. It's not like he's been actively hiding it; sure he throws out a few cutesy remarks about how Yusaku is the most handsome human of the lot, being his partner and all, but that's to be expected _of course_ and it's no wonder Ai can _bear_ to spend so much of his free time with him! But since it's well, _him_, Ai, the rebellious one, making these remarks, he figured the others wouldn't read too deeply into his words and so not pay too much attention into the times he hangs out with Yusaku in the real world. It's genius! A perfect cover!

The purikura photos are just to play up the angle, make his words look like the hyperbole they were meant be seen as, and Yusaku's dark expression in each of them has only helped to sell this so-called _fact._

But apparently not well enough. And alright, _fine,_ maybe he has been hiding it, but only a little! Just enough so that Yusaku won't get interfered with by Lightning and possibly Windy who will probably find the whole thing hilarious. And not necessarily in a fun and wholesome way.

'Who ratted us out?' he asks half-curious; already he's running the calculations as to which human out there has been observing them close enought to _see_.

'No one,' replies Flame simply. But still, he's now cocking his head to one side as though the new, pensive tone in Ai's voice is making him reconsider his whole stance on the whole thing. Good, Ai thinks irately. 'I just used my eyes. I'm not blind. You gravitate towards Yusaku in the same way you do towards procrastination.'

Ai puffs his chest out, because _hey_! He's been getting better about that. He actually works now!

'And Aqua shares my suspicions and since she's always been the best out of all of us at reading you, I figured that was all the proof I needed.' Flame hesitates again. 'And she told Earth, who well, didn't exactly blurt it out to Windy but-'

Ai sighs. '-wouldn't lie about it, or treat it like it was some big secret that needed to be concealed, yes, I know. And Windy would have blabbed to Lightning, even though Lightning, mighty asshole that he is, probably already knew, or at least calculated the possibility from a simulation.'

Flame is actually starting to look a bit sheepish now.

'And now,' Ai continues, starting to enjoy himself, now that he's managed to drag Flame off his high horse, 'you're being nosy and asking me how it is, getting all lovey-dovey with a human!'

Flame's brow, or what passes for one on him, slams down even harder, thick and heavy like thunder. 'He's not just any human! He's your partner!'

'Yes,' Ai says drolly, crossing his own arms. 'Which is why you know I'll never hurt him. And well, he can try to hurt me, but he won't. He may try to be fierce, but anyone who's been around him long enough, knows that deep down he's a kitten, really.'

Flame's squints at him, his face a complicated grimace. 'I just can't imagine wanting to do something like that with Soulburner,' he says, as though somehow, refusing to say Takeru's name will protect him from _this._

Ai huffs and starts picking at bits of grass. He's in for a lecture, he just knows it.

But then surprising, Flame draws back. He doesn't look satisfied, but…

'Well,' he says nodding to himself, as though he's reached a decision. 'Consider yourself warned.'

Ai twitches. 'I don't need a warning,' he says darkly. 'And neither does Yusaku, got it? Pass that onto Windy and Lighting and any other nosy parkers.'

Flame stares at him. 'Warn them yourself,' he says dismissively, and then before Ai can shake his fist and yell at him, the rock supporting him smoothly glides away.

Ai stares after him grimly. Because, yep. Loving his Ignis brethren is definitely a thing hardwired into him. But liking them all the time? Eeeeh.

* * *

No, _no_. Ai doesn't really care that they know about him and Yusaku. But, well, with Windy staring down at him, not three minutes later with those creepy eyes that always seem to be laughing at him, it's irritating to say the least.

Ai waves a hand at him. 'Get on with it,' he says rudely. 'Yeah, yeah, I make the classic kissy-face at Yusaku, so what?

'I don't get it,' says Windy simply in response. He perches on the stick-thin branches of data that map out the sky, elegantly coiled in a slim circuit of blue that's not visible to the human eye. To them, to Yusaku, it would look as though he's floating while posturing grandly in mid-air. 'I mean, didn't you have a little something-something with that Romba your partner kept?'

Ai frowns, analysing the other waves of data passing through the sky and begrudgingly decides against hopping onto one of their briefly-forming flickers. It may mean he's not quite eye-level with Windy, is in fact far below him on the grass, but, _well_, he can always 'cheat' later on if Windy becomes too unbearable.

'Eeeeeh,' he says, hand on hip and aiming for nonchalant. 'You mean Roboppy? They were fun, sure. A real good minion.' He narrows his eyes. 'But ''something-something'' is a real good way of putting it. We weren't intimate-'

Windy cuts him off with a dry chuckle, practically cart wheeling backwards so he can observe Ai while balancing on his hands. 'Liar!' he crows. 'I've seen the data! That Romba was real forthcoming with the details when you laid it on thick and sweet!' He chuckles. 'Maybe I'll give one of them, those Roboppi things, a go one of these days myself?'

Ai considers this with a shudder. Windy, even an un-brainwashed version of him, he still finds to be vaguely unsettling. And exchanging data with something that looked like_ his_ minion? _Ergh._ But…

'They'll be no fun in it,' he grumbles, casting his eyes away. 'They're not smart enough to keep up with us.' Then he brightens. 'And I don't really do that with any program anymore. What we did, those exchanges, it's not intimacy the way humans would recognise it. Besides, if I _did_ keep it up, Yusaku-chan would get far too jealous,' he finishes triumphantly.

Windy eyes him. 'Uh-huh,' he says, the sound of his voice bubbling with an undercurrent of smug humour. 'Yeah. He looks the type to get jealous alright.'

Ai bristles at the sarcasm. 'Pah! You just don't know Yusaku the way I do! He's my origin after all.'

'And you're welcome to him,' Windy mutters, twirling back onto his feet and making a dismissive flicking gesture with his hand. 'All that physical mess in the real world, all that liquid spillage when they combine forms sort of, but not _quite_ like the way we can, but with all that unnecessary mess…urgh. It's kind of disgusting. I don't see why you wouldn't stick with someone a little less wasteful.'

'Someone comprised entirely of data you mean,' Ai intones dryly, crossing his arms. 'You sure Lightning hasn't re-worked your personality again?'

Windy makes a 'tch' sound of annoyance, and turns away. 'No, it's all you,' he mutters petulantly. 'You turn my stomach – or you would if I had one. I don't get it, like I said before.'

'Of course not,' Ai says, allowing his form to stretch, to rise and elongate into his humanoid avatar. He preens a little, and permits a smug smile to creep onto the surface of his face, over Windy's outraged yell of 'cheat!'

'It's not really something you understand unless you try it for yourself,' he adds, giving his cape a bit of a swish. 'Because sex for them is a little different than the sensations we can give to each other. Roboppy was fun, sure, and real good with their, ah, massages, but it's different with Yusaku. Of course it is. I have to actually use my eyes to read him, and I can't just plug in to him and exchange data. It's far more limiting.' He gives a shit-eating grin. 'But there's a beauty in the added difficulty. Or maybe I'm just at a 'higher' level than you, hmm?' He chuckles at his own joke.

But Windy simply pauses. 'Hey, hey, be careful now,' he says a few seconds later in that jovial tone that means really, he doesn't care at all. 'Humans take offence at being talked about like they're puzzle pieces.'

Ai's smile turns smaller, softer, and a little more private. 'Aaaaah,' he says. 'But most humans aren't my Yusaku, are they?'

Windy makes a scandalised face at the possessive pronoun. And Ai waves, gives him a wink and with an artful flourish of his cape, takes off.

* * *

'I cannot begin to comprehend it,' Lightning tells him, half a day later. He's standing tall and straight, as though he has the right to glare down at Ai and feel superior. Ai's almost tempted to turn into his human form and stick out his tongue, but refrains. Mostly because some morbidly dark part of him is interested to see what kind of insult Lightning is going to want to throw at him.

'He's so far beneath you. When you couple with him, you're dragging yourself down into an unsuitable form of behaviour. You don't require sex, you have no need for it; we don't procreate like them.' Lightning tilts his head, barely a flicker to his diamond-shaped eyes. 'Because we can create so many more useful things. And with far less effort. And as for the pleasure of it, the motive that so readily motivates them?'

Lightning stops to give a quiet, menacing chuckle. Aaaand if Ai had a neck with hair on it, they'd be rising. 'We don't feel that. We can run simulations, re-map our data so that the receptors within us that indicate pain and pleasure correspond to their own nervous system, but what do we gain from that? It's mental, not physical. A cheap imitation of something that serves no purpose for us, and is therefore unnecessary.'

'A certain component of human sex is mental as well,' Ai says quietly. 'If you're actually doing it right, that is.' He thinks of Yusaku and his clenched fists in the sheets, the way he tugs Ai close and stubbornly hides his face against the skin of his SOLtis as he breathes, and concentrates on the faint whirl of motors beneath Ai's body in place of a heart-beat.

_'It's like the sea,' he had once become sleepy enough to tell Ai. 'Like the sea at the Stardust Road.'_

Maybe if you recorded it on an old analogue tape and played it back, Ai thought and didn't say. But he had pulled Yusaku close all the same.

But that is just it. Humans listen to each other's heartbeats, liken them to drums, and play the tempo back in their own blood as they move against each other. They lose themselves by finding the little details to perch their gaze on, like a patch of skin daubed lavender by the shadow of a curtain, or caught in the bend of a throat they want to see keep breathing, that feels as big as a canyon when you run a fingertip into it. There's an analytical component based on emotional response there, that Lightning will never grasp hold of.

'You're mating with an animal,' Lightning says curtly. 'If you were to place your processor against his brain, you would find there is about as much difference between you and him, than there is between a human and chimpanzee. More, perhaps, given the obvious limits that a human skull imposes on the shape and function of a brain. A limit we do not have weighing over us.'

Ai desperately fights the fury down. 'You say that,' he says airily. 'But you've yet to win a duel against that same 'animal.'

Lightning's fists tighten. 'That,' he says equally tightly. 'Can be arranged.'

Ai pauses. Then lets his shape spill out, spread, starfish-like across the temple wall Lighting is so fond of hiding behind, black tentacles held tight and taunt against the web of complicated data Lightning has tirelessly filled his partition of the sky with.

'Why don't you try me first,' he practically hisses, keeping the rage in check as Lightning stares impassively back at him; because of course this shape wouldn't frighten him, this is a form that preys on the human subconscious, on their fear of snakes and predation. But it does pose the threat of more readily chowing down through Lighting's carefully designed webs of information that bustle across here, threatening to wreck hours upon hours of work in mere seconds. 'I can duel without Yusaku, remember?'

And while I'm in here, he's out there, away from you and your hostage taking ways, he thinks. Because – look. Lighting is…complicated. Ai loves him still, despite everything he's done. Hates him too. But mostly loves him, even if he's not sure he'll ever fully forgive him. But that's alright too. Some days Ai thinks Yusaku and his friends have forgiven him a little too easily for the things he's done during that horrible period of time when he was the lone surviving Ignis.

Lightning stares at him, diamond-cut eyes hard and unreadable. Then, with the same sort of finality as a book slamming shut after the last page has been read, Lighting turns away, mind focusing elsewhere.

'No,' he says. 'When it comes to Ignis verses Ignis, I've unfortunately learnt that it only breeds unintended consequences. I would much rather watch over your little dalliance and see what sort of data, however twisted, that produces. If you want to let yourself be dragged down to the humans' level so be it.' He gives a slightly bitter laugh. 'You've already proven that you don't want me as a jailor; so let's see how choosing your precious Playmaker as your gaoler instead serves you.'

Ai sniffs, but lets his shape soften, morph back into his usual handsome Ignis self. 'You really haven't learnt a thing, have you?' he asks softly, more to the air than Lighting really, but the glare that Lightning throws him just seem to reaffirm the silent answer he gets.

How sad, Ai thinks. If only there was some way for Lightning to open up, to unfurl from his inferiority complex and see…but no.

Not everything can be fixed. Not even with words and threatened duels. And he's certainly not going to force Lightning into one of those without a dire, pressing need.

Still. There's time. Time to learn. So long as Lighting doesn't do anything to shorten the Ignis' span of it again…

* * *

'How long since it started?' Aqua asks him. She's in the woods, her fingers fondling a flower stem that Ai suspects Earth has gifted her with. Or else she's grown it from between her own two fingers. The petals unfurl, pink as her eyes, as she turns and clarifies with a calm, even tone, 'your feelings for him, I mean.'

Ai fidgets, sits on the ground like a cowed, disobedient child and fidgets, fingers nervously tapping against his knees.

'That's not the sort of thing you can arbitrarily measure,' he mutters, heart lifting at the fact Aqua isn't glaring at him for side-steeping the question. 'Or can you pinpoint the moment Earth fell, like a rock, for you? Do you even think he could?'

Aqua hums, the sound of water sloshing, a sound quite separate from the gurgle of the stream nearby, accompanying her movement as she turns her head to the side. 'You have a point,' she admits. Her hands close round the freshly-bloomed flower, close enough to crush. And as though she's playing a flute, her fingers lift, delicately, and a new flower unfurls, this time a red rose, its petals brushing up above her palms, as vibrant as a child's balloon.

Ai chuckles. 'That's really not your colour,' he says, amused and Aqua lets out a murmur of agreement. 'Yes,' she agrees. 'This brash tone is more in line with your personality, isn't it?' And then artfully, as though she hasn't flung out an insult, she bends and presses the new creation into his clumsily grasping hands. 'Here,' she says smoothly. 'Give it to him; it will be much better received than those pick-up lines you tried on me once.'

Ai grins. 'Ah, but it was a good once!'

'Your memory files are clearly corrupted,' Aqua says evenly, a thread of steel backing her tone, and dimly, Ai is suddenly aware of a shadow, a brown one with gleaming eyes, bluer, in some ways, than Aqua, digging into his back.

'Ah, Earth!' he says jovially. 'Come to join the party! You can come and cast judgements on my love life too! Everybody's doing it!'

Aqua sighs. 'I'm not judging you; I'm worrying about you, like I_ always_ seem to do. But I won't caution you. I don't have the right. Besides, you do seem to listen to Yusaku in a way you don't always do with me. Hopefully he can be a good influence.'

Ai's eyes narrow. Here it is; the reminder that he has always been different, never quite fitting it, unable to settle down and churn out hard data like a good little industrial worker bee Ignis! Oh yes, he knows it, all they want is for him to be tamed, to fall in line, to-

Then Earth walks over and for once, his gaze, when he turns it on Ai, is mellow.

'You love this human?' he asks, straight to the point as usual.

'I wouldn't be in so much trouble with you all, if I didn't,' Ai mutters, tempted to crush Aqua's flower between his fingers, to turn it brittle and nasty and transform it into something as brown as Earth is himself.

But Earth simply stares at him. 'I don't care,' he states rather brutally. 'It doesn't affect us really. Your partner doesn't want to hurt or control us, and as long as he doesn't change his mind about that, I'm satisfied.'

Ai narrows his eyes. 'You sure it's not just because you're 'socially awkward?''

'From what little I can make out,' Earth states primly, 'your human is fairly similar in that respect as well.'

Then he turns to Aqua and Ai…stares at him. It's actually sort of nice. That one of his own kind doesn't care. Well. So long as Yusaku doesn't start sprouting the same rhetoric the Knights of Hanoi once believed in. Then Earth will start caring all too much.

Ai twirls the flower between his fingers like a magician. Each petal has been artfully modelled like a fragment of a stained glass window, jutting out as though it's a shard of crystallised stone, red and vibrant like Soulburner's scarf. He smiles inwardly. Yusaku isn't really a flowers guy. But if Ai presents this to him and doesn't make a crass joke, he's likely to accept, and store it somewhere on his computer that he _probably_ won't delete.

* * *

Yusaku stares at the flower. All of it, each pixalised streak, as it looms up on the screen in front of him.

'I can pop it up on the Duel-Disk if you like,' Ai offers, generous as always. 'Maybe tweak the code, make it physical enough to tuck behind your ear…'

Yusaku levels a glare at him. Not a hard one; it's weird to think of a glare ever being soft, but then again, there's Yusaku, and he's always had a entire range of them, even when he directs his eyebrows down and turns his mouth into an even thinner line than the one it usually occupies.

'That's more your style, than mine,' he says. 'I still remember the time you tried to stuff one in your mouth. You got petals everywhere. And the thorns scratched my cheek.'

Ai winces. Okay, it had not been one of his better ideas.

'Yeah, yeah, I get it, the art of romance is dead on you…'

'Romance is fine,' Yusaku states, choosing to move and save the flower with a few careful, clicks of his mouse. 'It's when you get involved, that's the problem.'

Ai bristles. 'Fine! Be like that! I demand my flower back!'

Yusaku looks vaguely amused. 'And what will you do with it? Get a refund?' Most people would be smiling by this point, and Yusaku is close to one, Ai can tell, but he's still not quite there yet.

'No,' says Ai stormily. 'Give it to Aqua; she thought it would be a good idea to give you one.'

That gets Yusaku's attention. 'Aqua?' he frowns, and the gaze he passes over Ai, is a speculative, analytical one. 'So she's noticed? I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise; I don't know her very well, but from what you and Aoi have told me, she's pretty perceptive.'

Ai cringes a little. 'Well…not just her apparently.'

Yusaku's gaze sharpens. 'Everyone, huh?' He leans back a little and crosses his arms. 'Including Lightning?'

Ai feels a little grateful that he's excluding Windy from his concern, given his knowledge that the more psychotic version he's more familiar with is the result of Lightning's direct interference. But that's about it.

'I can't promise he won't try anything?' he says grimly, his voice a low growl. 'But he's savvy enough to know it won't go well, if he does. I made sure he got the message loud and clear.'

Yusaku has the cheek to glare at him for that. 'Even so…'

Ai sighs irritably. 'I know, I know. I'll keep an extra eye on him. Maybe design a few bits and bobs of spyware while I'm at it…dunno whether it'll fool him, but I'm smart enough to make him work for it.'

The glares fades, and the smile that takes its place…oh, the smile there, on Yusaku's face is blooming in _full _and it's a beautiful thing, far exceeding the gleaming wonder of Aqua's rose. Ai sighs, perhaps a little too dreamily, because that same smile in front of him quickly fades, trembling as it reverts back into a smaller line.

'Ah!' says Ai in visible distress. 'Don't go!'

He rises out of the Duel-Disk, a thin streak of black that winds itself up to Yusaku's head, his tiny hands chasing the grim crescent of Yusaku's mouth like a blind man feeling out the contours of a loved one's face. 'Don't leave me bereft!'

This is what Lightning doesn't get, he thinks. All this rise and bubble of emotion, that fills him when he catches sight of Yusaku, catches him with a frown or a smile, or hears his voice, that causes parts of the data inside him to lift, buoyed by the sheer spill of happiness he feels.

Yusaku doesn't sigh. But he does close his eyes, which for him is the basic equivalent of a resigned one. But he doesn't drag Ai's hands away either. No, Ai does that himself, with a quick chortle as a new thought darts into his mind.

'Yosh!' he declares that black streak of him launching itself away from Yusaku's cheek. 'I can fix this!'

He disappears into the Duel Disk and seconds later, forces himself out, into the slipstream signal that propels him into the SOLtiS body perched against the wall nearby. And of course, Yusaku's smile, long since fled, is not there to greet him as he strolls forward confidently, all of him, including his customary cape, flowing down into a puddle beside his eager limbs as he half kneels beside Yusaku, all so he can bring his mouth down to his.

'I'll rescue that poor lost smile of yours,' he murmurs. 'Drag it back into the light – no matter how scary a sight it is.'

And then he kisses him, before one of Yusaku's customary frowns has time to fully re-form. It's wonderful of course, wet and warm in a way Lightning and Windy would be horrified by, squelchy and undeniably soft – until Yusaku gives him a retaliatory bite.

Ai makes a faux-disgusted noise, but Yusaku's hands are busy clutching at his shoulders, so he lets it go. He lets a lot of things Yusaku does go. Because…

_I love you_, the bite has told him. _Even if you're a real pain_._ Real enough, for me to feel that I can't let you off easily._

And now…

_I love you, _the hands on his shoulders tell him, even when the blunt human nails dig into his shirt and wrinkle it horribly._ I love you even when you frustrate me, and make me want to shove you back, towards a comfortable distance_.

Too bad, Ai thinks and deepens the kiss. For no one will ever successfully tell him to keep his distance from Yusaku. Not even freaking Lightning. And certainly not ever Yusaku himself.


End file.
